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When to replace fence panels (and when to just fix them)

How to decide whether a Ramsgate fence panel needs replacing, repairing, or is fine for another five years. The three checks that tell you which one it is, and the cost trade-offs on each.

A tatty-looking fence panel is not necessarily an end-of-life fence panel. On a decade-old Ramsgate fence, at least half of the panels that look 'ready to go' are actually fine for another five years with a preservative retreatment. Knowing which ones are which saves you a couple of thousand pounds unnecessarily. Three checks.

Check one - the poke test

Take a screwdriver or a car key and press the point firmly into the timber, hard. Do it at the bottom edge of the panel (which is where rot starts). Do it at the vertical batten. Do it at the horizontal rail if you can reach it. If the point sinks in more than about 2 or 3mm and comes out wet, the timber is rotting. If the point bounces off or just marks the surface, the timber is fine underneath the weathered look. Panels that look silver or grey on the surface but pass the poke test are structurally fine - they just need re-treating.

Check two - the wobble test

Grab the top of the fence panel with both hands and rock it back and forward. A properly-installed panel in concrete-slotted posts should have almost no movement side-to-side (the concrete post holds it). Some flex is normal on 6ft lap panels because the panel itself has give. If the whole panel moves in the slot, the panel is rotted at the edges where it sits in the slot; replace. If the panel is solid but a post is wobbling, the panel is fine and it's the post that needs attention.

Check three - the boards

On a closeboard fence, look at the individual featheredge boards. If two or three at the bottom are cupping, split, or missing, they can be replaced individually - about £5 to £8 per board in materials and 20 minutes each in labour. On a lap or overlap panel, individual slats can be replaced too if you can find matching-height replacements. On a featheredge fence board where a majority of boards on one section are gone, replace the whole panel - it's quicker and cheaper.

The cost breakdown

Individual featheredge board replacement: £5 to £8 per board in materials, £25 to £60 in labour for a set of 1 to 5. Single panel replacement (lap or featheredge): £70 to £130 all-in including the new panel. Full fence replacement on a 20m run: £1,500 to £2,200 depending on spec. If you're facing more than about 40% of panels needing replace, full replacement is usually the honest answer - the panels you don't replace this year will be up again next year, and it's cheaper to do them all at once than to keep coming back.

The Ramsgate factor

Coastal fencing generally needs replacing 3 to 5 years earlier than an inland Kent equivalent. So if your neighbour's inland cousin got 20 years out of a lap panel fence, expect 15 to 17 here. That's built into the pricing bands above.